UK producer Clark (he dropped the ‘Chris’ some years back) has always been a meticulous musician, utterly dedicated to his craft. Having released debut album Clarence Park way back in 2001, the techno whizz has put out a none-too-shabby total of six EPs and six LPs since then. Clark is known for pushing the boundaries of electronic music, merging classic sounds with all manner of new-fangled technology.
His latest offering Iradelphic is no exception – this proverbial onion of an album sees the producer carefully layer sounds and blend genres to produce a thing of real beauty. Album opener ‘Henderson Wrench’ is an earthy instrumental that oozes Spanish guitar (Clark recently learnt to play both guitar and piano), but this track is only one facet of the diverse range of sounds represented on Iradelphic. ‘Com Touch’ is bass-heavy electro, while the sublime ‘Tooth Moves’ is awash on a sea of ambience, merging soaring guitar samples with shimmery electro production.
And there’s more. For this album, Clark enlisted the vocal skills of Martina Topley-Bird (vocalist with Tricky and Massive Attack) and the resulting tracks (‘Open’ and ‘Secret’) are suitably trip-hoppy, Clark’s sensually dark beats offsetting Topley-Bird’s ever-haunting voice. Another highlight is ‘Black Stone’, a simple but lovely piano instrumental, which proves good music is not synonymous with grandiose production. Beautiful stuff.